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Thursday, July 13, 2017

Next week on Thursday, July 18 we celebrate the 99th birth-anniversary
of South Africa’s first coloured President and legendary freedom fighter
Nelson Mandela who is widely regarded as one of the noblest leaders of
modern times.

It is one of the rare events where the United Nations celebrates the
birthday of a world leader for his heroic battle for freedom, justice
and democracy.

“It is easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make
peace and build,” the United Nations quotes Nelson Mandela as saying.

The UN says everyone has the ability and the responsibility to change
the world for the better, and Mandela Day is an occasion for everyone to
take action and inspire change.

For 67 years, Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity
— as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international
peacemaker and the first democratically elected President of a free
South Africa.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation is dedicating this year’s Mandela Day to
action against poverty, honouring Nelson Mandela’s leadership and
devotion to fighting poverty and promoting social justice for all.

In December 2015, the UN General Assembly decided to extend the scope of
Nelson Mandela International Day to also be utilized to promote humane
conditions of imprisonment, to raise awareness about prisoners being a
continuous part of society and to value the work of prison staff as a
social service of particular importance.

The UN General Assembly not only adopted the revised UN Standard Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, but also approved that they
should be known as the “Nelson Mandela Rules” to honour the legacy of
the late South African President, who spent 27 years in prison in the
course of his struggle for freedom, justice and democracy. The UN
General Assembly proclaimed Mandela’s birthday, July18, as “Mandela
Day”, marking his contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle. It called
on the people to donate 67 minutes to doing something for others,
commemorating the 67 years that Mandela had been a part of the movement.

Essentially Nelson Mandela was a servant leader. After decades of a
battle against the white supremacists he was elected President in 1994
for a five-year term. He was so respected by the people that he could
have gone on for two or three terms. Yet he decided to quit after one
five-year term in office, giving a lesson to world leaders.

In Sri Lanka former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was elected in 2005
amended the Constitution to give him the power to go on for more than
two terms or for a lifetime. The former President was so confident of
his position or popularity that in November 2014 he called an early
presidential election, two years before schedule. Perhaps he did not
foresee the dramatic crossover that took place in November 2014 when the
then Health Minister and Sri Lanka Freedom Party General Secretary
Maithripala Sirisena crossed over to form what was described as a
rainbow coalition.

In the presidential election on January 8, 2015, Mr. Sirisena’s rainbow
coalition soared to a spectacular victory. As a result we today have a
national unity government between the two major parties, the United
National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

President Sirisena in one of his first speeches from the Dalada Maligawa
pledged he would be a servant leader and work for the abolition of the
wide-powered Executive Presidency. He and other government leaders also
committed themselves to work towards the mission of a peaceful, just and
all inclusive society. We hope that in our country also we would see a
Nelson Mandela who is sincerely ready to go beyond personal gain or
glory and work for freedom, justice and democracy.